Everyone knew that the German army had an obvious advantage in the center, and everyone thought that the German army would launch an attack on the Ural industrial region and knock out the last industrial base of the Soviets. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

Rokossovsky looked at the map, then looked at the situation of the enemy and us, and subconsciously muttered: "Since the enemy has turned around, then quickly let Comrade Vasilevsky attack from the middle to pursue the enemy's tail." ”

"It's easier said than done." Captain Zhukov sighed, "Army Group Center Moder led 3 armies to block the exit of the Ural Mountains, how many troops will it take to move the German defense?" ”

Hearing that it was Moder guarding the pass, everyone was silent, and last time Meretskov launched an offensive in the direction of Moscow and rushed to the Moder line, only to be covered with bags. Now Vasilevsky has only one remnant of the Ural Front (commander of the Front, Govorov), who originally wanted to give full play to Govorov's defensive capabilities (he had held Leningrad for a long time), but it seems that it was completely lost

"Can Comrade Tolbukhin's North-Western Front launch a diversionary offensive? Disrupting the rear of the Germans in the Middle Roads and forcing Moder to retreat? ”

Zhukov shook his head: "There is also the German Army Group North staring at him opposite, and he can't shake it for a moment, otherwise Moscow is in danger." ”

In the middle of the battlefield, in order to maintain stability on a large scale, Marshal Moder only used the infantry army to block the gap, and deployed the 2nd and 3rd armored armies in the center of the battlefield for mobile defense, with a distance of more than 400 kilometers between each other, and creatively developed the tactic of attacking troops acting as strategic defense.

In this set of tactics, instead of the traditional continuous front, the strategy of holding the key points with firepower and maneuver superiority is adopted. The entire defensive front stretches from Voronezh and Tambov through Kazan and Ulyanovsk to the Ufa line, and the overall length of the defense line is more than 1,200 kilometers.

But how could a huge central battlefield be able to change the situation with just a few divisions or even a few armies? Not to mention that there is still a large area of no-man's land here, and there is no way to even fight guerrilla warfare for a long time.

Everyone can see that after the German army blocked the Ural Mountains, a salient has been formed in the direction of Moscow, and it is in danger under the three-way attack of the German Army Group Center, the St. Petersburg Army Group of the Russian Liberation Army and the German Army Group North (including Finnish troops).

"Let the 38th Army coordinate with the 5th Guards Tank Army to stabilize the situation, and Comrade Rokossovsky's two armies will turn around, not to get closer to Comrade Chernyakhovsky, and to cooperate with the 38th Army to counterattack the German SS Army." That night, Zhukov finally came up with an unavoidable solution, intending to use three and a half armies (with a total strength of about 250,000) to annihilate the intrusive SS army. As long as this thorn is pulled out and three and a half armies are united, there is still hope for the closure of the Caucasus.

"And what about Uralsk?"

"Let Comrade Malinovsky's Independence Front go to block." After cooperating with Chernyakhovsky to take the Caspian Sea and infiltrate the Caucasus, Moscow officially upgraded the 300,000-strong Independent Army Group to the Independent Front as Zhukov's general reserve.

"Then Rostov will not be able to take it, and we will be seriously understaffed."

"Rostov should remain in the hands of the enemy, and I will draw 150,000 men from Central Asia to fill the vacancies after the departure of the independent front." Zhukov sighed, "The enemy is much more difficult to fight than we imagined, and with the new reinforcements of the SS Panzer Army, the pre-war deployment must be adjusted." ”

Everyone was silent: In addition to the 100,000 people blocked by Chuikov in the Central Asian direction, there are still these 150,000 troops, once withdrawn, in case the separatist forces of various nationalities rise again, I am afraid that it will develop into a prairie fire.

But now Zhukov had to do this, if he did not block the German army in Uralsk, the Red Army on the southern flank would be attacked on the back and would not be able to let go of the attack; If troops are not transferred from Central Asia as substitutes, Chernyakhovsky's offensive spearhead will immediately lose its sharpness.

According to Zhukov's idea, Rostov could not take it, as long as it approached, the gap could still be closed and the Kleist cluster could be forced to retreat. But the SS Army, which had penetrated so hard today, had to be pulled out, otherwise the threat would be too great to accomplish the next strategic attempt -- he had quietly lowered the goal of the Mercury Project, from the total annihilation of all German forces in the Caucasus to forcing the Germans to retreat and annihilate part of their forces.

Although Hauser was careful to commit two Panzer Divisions, the Reds believed that they had encountered the SS Army. The reason for this misunderstanding is that the reports sent from the front state that the enemy Panzergrenadiers were about 8 battalions of troops in armored vehicles - normally a German Panzergrenadier Regiment has only one grenadier battalion that can take armored vehicles, and now the Guard Flag Corps and the Youth Division have invested 8 grenadier battalions in one go, but in fact only two Panzergrenadier Corps have been deployed, giving the illusion that the Germans have deployed 4 divisions!

With 4 divisions plus 400-500 tanks, the command of the Red Army speculated that the Germans should have 5-6 divisions engaged in the offensive - exactly one Panzer Army formation. They never expected that this was just a momentum of 2 integrated divisions, and the SS16 National Leader Panzergrenadier Division, as a reserve, was busy consolidating positions and dealing with prisoners all the way, and did not fire a single shot at all.

In the evening, a large number of German supply convoys arrived, not only to provide emergency repairs for the damaged tanks, but more importantly to replenish fuel and ammunition for the rest of the troops, and in less than three hours, nearly 200 3-ton fuel tankers (net capacity of about 4,000 liters) were sucked dry, and more than 20 were temporarily refilled. Compared with the tank thickness of 4-5mm for civilian tankers, military tankers take into account the needs of anti-light weapons and explosive fragmentation attacks, and the thickness of the tank (except for the bottom) is nearly 10mm, and this 10mm is still a double-layer tank structure, which greatly improves safety and survivability. Of course, you have to use artillery shells, heavy machine guns, or iron fists against tankers, and even the thickest tanks will explode.

After meeting their division commander, Piper and Meyer gave a brief report on today's operation, offering to lead a special armored company (equipped with infrared equipment) to a night attack, but they were refused.

"Why?"

"Daddy told us to rest tomorrow and let the Imperial Division and the Skeleton Division go up and fight! Night raid also let them go! ”

"Okay then." Piper and Meyer, who had never been addicted, could only reluctantly agree.

According to the results of the Air Force's reconnaissance, Hausser, keenly aware of the Red Army's repulsion (not crushing) today and the determination of the opponent to try to regroup, determined not to give the other side a chance to breathe, resorted to the great method of "wheel attack and wave advance" that had been practiced for a long time, and always maintained great pressure on the Red Army.

Although this style of play is not as huge as the four-outfit scene, it has a prominent advantage - logistics! The biggest problem restricting the establishment of the 1944 type has always been logistics; as the battle line gradually deepens and lengthens, the logistical supply will become more and more tight, and the advantage of the wheel-shaped offensive is that the logistical support of the two groups of troops is concentrated but only for the offensive use of one group of troops, and the second group of troops only needs to advance along the road opened up by the first wave of attacking troops -- which can save a lot of fuel. For example, although the Tiger 2 tank is majestic on the battlefield, it is an out-and-out oil tiger, and each tank drinks half a ton of oil before the start of the war, and basically has to drink half a ton after a battle. Just dealing with a few heavily armored battalions has consumed the stock of more than 60 fuel tankers, although the Leopard is a little better, it is not a fuel-efficient lamp, plus there are a large number of infantry armored vehicles that are driving in, each of which is waiting to be fed.

The General Staff has made an assessment that the 1944 armored division consumes 500 tons of fuel per day (calculated for a distance of 100 km) in the normal marching state, doubles the alert defense (no need to march in defensive warfare), and doubles the offensive breakthrough state to 2000 tons! If the Hauser cluster is engaged in 4 loads, the fuel consumption will be at least 10,000 tons per day. There is no shortage of oil in Germany now, but it is really difficult to maintain 10,000 tons of oil on the Eastern Front, which is separated from the railway line and is maintained by car transshipment, Hausserl thought that it was better to be cautious, so he resorted to the wave attack Dafa, and the next day's attack would be led by the Skeleton Division and the Imperial Division.

Special forces were dispatched to attack the commanders of the two divisions, and the two immediately dispatched troops equipped with infrared night vision equipment in accordance with the requirements of standard night battles. At first, I only thought it was a field gun covering the shooting, but later I found out that it was a tank gun, and the strange thing is that the other side hit it extremely accurately, and those anti-tank gun positions and tank destroyers that were camouflaged and lurking and hid well were pulled out by the Germans one by one, and what was even more jaw-dropping was that a T-43 tank hiding in a ring fortification, with a gap of less than 1 meter in contact with the enemy, was destroyed by shells flying from more than 1,300 meters. The Germans used only 3 shells!

In the early morning of May 27, Zhukov received a telegram from the headquarters that made his hands and feet cold: the German army landed on the front line of Batumi and Poti, with an estimated strength of 5-6 divisions, mainly infantry and mountain soldiers, together with the original German defensive forces, took the initiative to attack the forces left behind by Chernyakhovsky; At the same time, the German forces near the Iranian border also turned to the offensive after a stubborn posture the previous day.

Uralsk is in a hurry!

Caucasus flat plaintiff in a hurry!

Transcaucasia is in an emergency!

The Soviet counterattack is urgent!